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NavSource Online: Service Ship Photo Archive

Lost to enemy torpedo attack, 12 November 1942, at Fedala Bay, Morocco

USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42)exUSAT Tasker H. Bliss (1941 - 1942)

Awards, Citations and Campaign RibbonsPrecedence of awards is from top to bottom, left to right
Top Row - Combat Action Ribbon (retroactive--12 November 1942)
Bottom Row - American Campaign Medal - Europe-Africa-Middle East Campaign Medal (1) - World War II Victory MedalTasker H. Bliss Class Transport:

Built in 1921 as SS President Cleveland at Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Co., Newport News, VA. for American President Lines

Chartered by the US Army in July 1941

Renamed USAT Tasker H. Bliss; Transferred to the US Navy, 19 August 1942

SS President Cleveland probably photographed while operating under U.S. Shipping Board ownership between 1922 and 1925. Photo courtesy Shipscribe.

Robert Hurst

USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42)

203k

Namesake

Tasker Howard Bliss, born in Lewisburg, Pa., 31 December 1853, graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1875. In Spain at the outbreak of the Spanish-American War, he was assigned to General Wilson as Chief of 'Staff. He fought in all major engagements in Puerto Rico and was breveted a Colonel for outstanding service. After the war, Bliss served as Collector of Customs for Cuba and negotiated the treaty of reciprocity with Cuba in 1902. After several important administrative appointments in the United States and the Philippines, he was named Assistant Chief of Staff of the Army in 1915 and Chief of Staff in 1917. A scholarly yet energetic officer, General Bliss helped greatly to work out plans for American mobilization for World War I. In 1917 he was appointed to the Supreme War Council in Paris and had much to do with the negotiations leading up to the Versailles Treaty. Subsequently, he was a commissioner and a signer of the treaty. During the last years of his life, General Bliss was devoted to historical study, and was awarded many honorary degrees and the Distinguished Service Medal. He died in Washington, D.C., 9 November 1930.
Digital ID: cph 3a36601 Source: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Bill Gonyo

81k

USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42) near Norfolk Navy Yard, 8 October 1942. This ship can be distinguished from her sisters by the low placement of all three guns on her stern.
US National Archives, RG-19-LCM, Photo # 19-N-35836 a US Navy Bureau of Ships photo now in the collections of the US National Archives, courtesy Shipscribe.com.

Mike Green

68k

USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42) near Norfolk Navy Yard, 8 October 1942. All three ships of this class had a break between the
bridge and the rest of the superstructure, with a small hatch served by two kingposts. This break was a feature of all ships of this class as originally built, but
some had it filled in while in merchant service between the wars.Photo by Edward L. Walger PH2 USN, 1942-1945.
US National Archives, RG-19-LCM. Photo # 19-N-35834, courtesy Shipscribe.com.

Barbara Walger andRobert Hurst

104k

USS Tasker H. Bliss (AP-42) at anchor, date and location unknown. Note the small hold abaft her bridge. The two boats lying across her foredeck are LCM(3)s; note the skids for a smaller boat to be stowed atop the forward one.US Navy photo from "US Amphibious Ships and Craft", by Norman Freidman.